Cholesterol Challenge

At the Lake Region Healthcare Men's Night on April 5th, a few members of FFAR placed a friendly wager.  At the Men's Night event, several health screening tests were available.  The group decided to hold a cholesterol challenge.

The wager: the person with the highest cholesterol must eat a vegan diet (no meat, no dairy) for one week.

One week later, the cholesterol results were available.

Josh Tysver lost the bet.  (He said he didn't mind if I shared this information.)  His cholesterol at Men's Night was 247 mg/dl.

The vegan diet was a major adjustment from the typical Minnesota diet.  (Ask Josh for further details.)  After one week of a vegan diet, his cholesterol was rechecked.  His total cholesterol was 197 mg/dl.

In one week, the vegan diet resulted in a comparable effect to the HMG-CA reductase inhibitors medications (statins) commonly used to treat elevated cholesterol.  Josh's cholesterol dropped 20% in one week.  The statin medications are known to decrease total cholesterol levels by 13 to 42% over several months.

While this is not a clinical trial, and no scientific methodology was utilized, the individual results are compelling.  

Elevated cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.  On a Mayo Clinic website, five recommendations are listed to lower cholesterol.

• Lose weight
• Eat heart-healthy foods
• Exercise most days of the week
• Quit smoking
• Drink alcohol only in moderation

As seen in a previous post, running has also been shown to decrease cholesterol.  Keep running!